Do you hunt alone?

[pricedo]

I've stayed in a bush tent alone on hunting/prospecting/fishing trips in Northern Ontario for as long as a week.

I find that it's nice to get people & society out of my face by camping alone in the wilderness for several days at a time.

Life Memberships: NRA, GOA, CSSA, NFA, OFAH
CCW Permits: Utah, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Maine

 

[planemaker]

I hunt alone, have for many years since the guys I got started with quit or moved etc. I only hunt Ruffed Grouse so I am into the thick stuff if a trail is not found to walk.
I take a couple of slugs with me and a large knife in case of meeting a predator and since I smoke I always have means to make fire. Show the wife where I am going on a map (this only since been recently hitched) and carry a cell for all the good it does since most of the time there is no towers near enough.
I have met countless deer(non-predatory so far) a few moose, seen a cougar run across a road, foxes, coyotes and bumped 2 bear that sure made me think of those slugs being close to hand.
By far the most memorable meeting was approx 15 years or so ago in the Sandilands Provincial Forest. Walking a fairly wide old trail that at that time could be negoiated with a vehicle, I hit a fairly long straight section with a good 100 yards of visibility ahead. From upwind of me a pack of 7 Gray Wolves rounded the far curve in the trail. I froze in my tracks... They did not scent me as they were upwind and did not seem to notice me as I have stopped moving. Casually they trotted along the trail towards me making little forays off and back on to as I observed making scent markings. I really was taken by how purely slate gray their pelts were and how friggin' big they were!
At about fifty yards out I let off both barrels of the shotgun into the air and reached for the slugs. No need, they evaporated into the bush like ghosts ! Decided that it would be best to go back from whence I came as a prudent option.
About 3 hours later on a different section of the trail I heard something coming thru the bush hell-bent for leather about to cross the trail diagonally in front of me. I stopped and a large doe blew by with a single gray wolf in pursuit. The wolf saw me, slapped on the binders, gave me a look and did the disappearing act like his relatives earlier.
I have hunted the same area off and on since then and not a sign of any wolves but the last 2 years I have had a companion with me on these hunts. Not another person, but my dog. My first time back there with the dog( Brittany Spaniel "VooDoo") the memory of my encounter made me very nervous as to my dog's safety.

Tim

 

[theDuck]

I hunt by myself so I go at my own pace where I want.

 

[Jess]

It's the only way to hunt!

 

[Turbo]

I usually hunt alone. However this year was the first year I hunted with another person. I WILL NEVER HUNT WITH ANOTHER PERSON AGAIN. The guy was more of a parasite than good company.

 

[martinbns]

I hunt alot with my son who is now almost 20, but he's finding it hard to get out being in university. I also like to hunt alot by myself, my wife worries a bit that something will happen to me alone in the bush.

We just talked about it when I got home Thursday evening, she doesn't like it wants me to give her detailed descriptions of the areas I will be hunting and to be a bit more careful than in the past. I shot a deer a long way form my truck on thursday, in years past I would have grunted and groaned dragging it out in one piece. This year I halved it before I dragged, no sense having a heart attack a couple of miles from the nearest navigable road.

 

[legi0n]

... and I always carry a short barreled shotgun...

 

[JIMJ]

I was muzzleloader hunting one year heading back to my truck about 1 1/2 miles across my neighbors field. I could just barely see 3 wolves paralleling me at about 200 yards just before it got too dark to see. But they followed me the whole way back to the truck as I could hear the brush break every so often. And yes it did creep me out because I only had one shot and reloading would have been nil. Would have had to trust my knife if ever anything transpired out of the situation.

 

[Longwalker]

I just love it when people are afraid to hunt alone. More room for me! Most hunters will not hike more than one KM off a road either.
I almost always hunt alone, but like to share camp with my buddies. I only hunt with others beside me when I'm mentoring a new hunter.
Those SPOT personal GPS beacons are worse than useless. Had one on a 300 KM canoe trip this summer. It indicated that it was beaming out our location each night, and it actually only sent a signal at the start and end of the trip.
Learn to be self-reliant. It is satisfying. You're more likely to die in a traffic accident travelling to your hunting spot.

 

[Gatehouse]

What a guy! I've only been hunting for 3 years and I have done lots of stuff in the bush by myself. It's mostly around sunset that my imagination starts running away with me.

I grew up on onterrible and never worried about the bush there... at all... even in Thunder Bay I would go screw around in the woods by myself. It was only since moving to B.C. that I've had bears on the brain./QUOTE]

Sorry, I should have said you are an EASTERN pussy!

 

[Crazy.kayaker]

First year hunting and hunting partner brother (Mr. Friendly) moved to Vancouver leaving me high and dry. Also couldn't find anyone who'd go with me but I like the solitude I'm a loner but I'll go with a partner just as fast as I'll go alone if I could find one. Only cause it could be easier to pack out the animal.

C.K